


Sunshine and Shadows

by Random_fandom_girl



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:23:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 9,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28476861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Random_fandom_girl/pseuds/Random_fandom_girl
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 4
Kudos: 51





	1. Chapter 1

Watching Nico talking to Annabeth and Percy, Will mentally slapped himself in the face. That conversation had gone about as smoothly as the surface of the moon. There was no chance of Nico ever willingly talking to him if he behaved like an overprotective mother hen, although part of him still wanted to wrap the son of Hades up in a blanket, burrito-style, and hand-feed him nutritious snacks.

“Solace!”

The harsh tone of Clarisse’s voice snapped him back to reality.

“Quit admiring Di Angelo! I know you’d be more than happy to do that all day, so I’m reminding you now! You have an appointment after lunch to give Chuck a check-up DO NOT BE LATE OR YOU’LL BE GETTING AN APPOINTMENT WITH MY SPEAR!”

On that friendly note, the newly-elected godmother stormed over to the Athena Cabin to harass the campers who had offered to weave clothes for the new-born satyr. Gods help whoever stood in the way of her warpath. She adored Chuck and was determined to make his life as perfect as possible. 

Will nodded vaguely, before turning back to watch the son of Hades. He couldn’t help it. It wasn’t his fault that Nico was so gods damned attractive. Nico laughed at something Percy said, the action lighting up his face, making him truly look like the angel his name said he was. He gave Annabeth a high-five before heading back towards where Will was standing in front of the Apollo Cabin. 

Will noticed a blush creeping into his cheeks and quickly turned away, mortified. A moment later he felt a prod at his shoulder and looked up to see the son of Hades regarding him questioningly. 

“Will? We’d better get these 3 days over and done with then, right?”

Startled, Will let out a weird laugh that sounded like a piece of machinery made by Cabin 9, before nodding, turning round, and promptly walking into the doorframe, much to the amusement of Kayla, who was sitting inside, waxing her bowstring. Embarrassed, he quickly changed from his flip-flops into something more suitable for the infirmary before emerging again onto the porch. 

✧✧✧

Nico was waiting for him on the porch, leaning against a post, drumming his fingers against the railing. When Will approached him, he stood up and gestured for the son of Apollo to lead the way. The walk to the infirmary was short, thank the gods, and Will spent the time determinedly staring forwards. A few campers were hurrying around, carrying supplies. Will nodded a hello towards Jake Mason, who was with a few other Hephaestus kids. The older boy didn’t have crutches any more, but preferred to use a cane when he had to walk around. Typical Cabin 9-style it had several cool additions, such as being able to extend into a fighting staff and, if Harley had anything to do with it, probably a flamethrower somewhere. The scarily muscular 8-year-old was chatting animatedly to his older brother, but he wasn’t at his usual bouncy self. Harley had worshipped Leo, and had been devastated by his loss. It didn’t help that now, closer to the start of school, all of his siblings, save for Nyssa, would be heading home or to college for a while. Will made a mental note to hang out with him more. 

The two boys reached the doors of the infirmary and Will opened one, stepping aside to let Nico in first. Once they were inside, Will made a beeline for an empty bed at the back of the infirmary.

“We save the front beds for anyone that comes in with a really severe injury”,

he explained. He gestured for Nico to sit on the bed while he fussed around, clearing some of Austin’s sheet music away from a chair before plonking himself down on it. He’d have a word later with his brother about working on his compositions in the infirmary. Glancing up, he noticed that Nico was looking rather awkward (and adorable). He kept moving his hands around, as if he weren’t quite sure what he was doing, whilst desperately avoiding eye contact with anyone. Right. Nico wasn’t a people person, and it was currently quite busy in the surrounding area. Will stood up to draw the blue curtain around their area, before turning to address the son of Hades. 

“I know this is primarily for you to get some rest, but I think I should give you a general check just to make sure nothing other than your irresponsible use of underworldy powers is a problem.”

Nico scowled at him but didn’t argue, instead opting for a curt nod. Will continued,

“I’ll start by looking under that bandage on your arm”

He reached out to Nico’s arm 

“Is this ok?”,

he asked. Nico paused slightly, before nodding again. As gently as he could, Will raised Nico’s arm and began to slowly unwind the bandage, revealing several nasty-looking red claw-marks gouged into his skin.

“Werewolf claws”,

mumbled Nico. Will frowned.

“These are definitely infected. I’ll check for a fever and get some ambrosia for you. I reckon these will leave scars.”

He hesitated, then leaned in and brushed Nico’s raven-black hair from his forehead. It felt soft and, to his dismay, Will found his cheeks turning pink again. Holding the back of his hand against Nico’s pale forehead, he noticed how warm the son of Hades was.

“Nico, you’re burning up!”,

he announced before rummaging around in a nearby cupboard for some ambrosia and anything else he could use to treat the wound. He noticed a rather sad-looking Aloe Vera plant. Didn’t his siblings know that Aloe Vera should be placed in direct sunlight and not at the back of supply cupboards? He placed the poor plant in the windowsill, before taking a washcloth and some antibacterial ointment from the cupboard, along with the promised ambrosia. After thoroughly washing his hands, he handed the ambrosia to Nico, who began to delicately take small bites out of it, while he wet the cloth under the tap and started to carefully clean the wound. Nico winced slightly when the cloth made contact with the infected area, but had a slightly dopey faraway expression whilst he ate the ambrosia. Will wondered what Nico tasted when he consumed ambrosia. When Will ate it he tasted the sweet lemonade his grandma made whenever he returned home to visit. He tended to remain at camp most of the time, due to his mum always travelling for work and his insistence not to attend any sort of boarding school, but every now and again, he would fly over with a satyr protector to stay at his grandparent’s house with her. When he left, he would spend most of his time wondering when, or if, he’d ever get to go back. Especially after having 2 big wars in the space of a few years. Of course, his problems were all miniscule compared to what Nico had had to go through. He’d had to face the death of his sister, being alone with only a ghost for company, knowing about Camp Jupiter and not being able to tell anyone, being kidnapped and locked in a jar by crazy giants, and then on top of all of that had to deal with everyone at camp avoiding him, because they thought that he wasn’t normal. It all made Will so angry at the world, for allowing some people so many good things, when Nico could probably count the number of times he’d been happy since coming to camp on one hand, and still have fingers left over to spare.

Nico cleared his throat, and Will realised to his embarrassment, that he was staring again. He sheepishly placed the cloth in the sink, before lightly spreading a thin layer of the antibacterial ointment over the claw marks and murmuring a prayer to his father, while wondering if it would even work, seeing as Apollo was probably at that moment in time in the middle of a long lecture from his father, Zeus, concerning Octavian, the evil stuffed-toy destroyer (Percy had treated the whole camp to a story at the campfire of how his panda pillow pet had been brutally slaughtered). 

He then covered the wound with a gauze pad, finishing by gently wrapping a length of bandage around, to prevent further infection. 

He turned round to clean up while giving Nico strict instructions,

“I’ll talk to Chiron and explain that you are under no circumstances to partake in any sort of training exercises. You should spend most of your time here, getting some much needed sleep, however I think it’s a good idea for you to attend 1 meal a day at the pavilion, which will also allow you to have some healthy time outdoors. The rest of the time I will provide food for you.”

Even though he was facing away, he could imagine the son of Hades glaring daggers at him. 

“I can get food myself. There’s a McDonalds near enough that the shadow travel shouldn’t hurt me.”

Will sighed in exasperation, running a hand through his hair and turning around to face his stubborn patient.

“Really? What part of ‘you can’t even summon a wishbone without melting into a puddle of darkness’ do you not get? I’m not even going to start on the ridiculous lack of proper nutrients in a McDonalds meal. What can they offer you that camp doesn’t?”

Nico raised his chin in a show of defiance

“Does Camp Half-Blood offer snazzy boxes? No I thought not. It also has an over-bearing mamma bear watching my every move. When I agreed to this, I expected gentle rest, not a prison sentence.”

He dramatically flopped back on the bed, his head on the pillow. 

“I’m not even tired! Not one bit!”

Fixing his glare at the ceiling he mumbled

“This is a nice pillow. Soft and squishy.”

On that note, he fell asleep, still muttering about how fully awake he was. Amused, Will shook his head and stepped out of the curtained area into the main area of the infirmary to see Cecil and Austin chuckling in his direction. Austin was in the process of checking Cecil’s strained calf muscle and met Will’s eyes with an amused look.

“Why William my dear brother, I do believe that you have met your match. He’s just as headstrong as you are!”

Disgruntled, the senior counsellor of the Apollo cabin went to the storage closet to reorganise the medical supplies.


	2. Chapter 2

Nico woke up to the sound of manic giggling. Groggily, he sat up and rubbed his eyes. He slipped out of the bed, moving towards the curtain with the hope of finding food. The blue material was ripped back and, to his surprise, Harley barged in, slapped a smiley-face sticker onto his t-shirt, and left again, still giggling. Nico looked up to see a smirking Cecil at the next bed over, sporting his own smiley sticker.

“Will thought it would be a good idea for him to visit and lift the spirits of everyone. He’s been hovering near for a while, because I told him you should wake up on your own, rather than with his help”

“Hmmph”

Nico responded.

A seemingly amused Will came in with a tray of plates of food, which he proceeded to hand out to the various inhabitants of the infirmary.

“You look so grumpy”,

he chuckled, narrowly avoiding a small Apollo child who seemed to be imitating Kayla by holding a clipboard and marching around on their tiptoes with a small bow strung to their back and the torn leaves of a very green plant on their head.

“Lillie, remember what I told you. No weapons in the infirmary!”

Lillie turned around and proceeded to aggressively skip out of the infirmary, knocking a side table over in the process, and scattering leaves along the floor. Kayla sighed, and put down her clipboard in order to clean up the damage.

“Sorry about that. She really wanted to help”

Will sighed and shook his head, before turning to Nico and setting a plate of food on the table near his bed. Upon closer inspection, the plate had an alarmingly high number of plants. Nico huffed, before selecting an apple and taking a bite from it, mumbling his thanks. 

"So what am I meant to do now?"

He asked.

"Well, for a start, breakfast should be more than one apple."

Will replied from where he was putting away a pile of music sheets. Nico felt a pang in his heart, remembering how his mother used to teach him and Bianca to play the piano. Nico could never coordinate his fingers properly, but Bianca played beautifully, and he had liked to sit and watch her, mesmerised by the music. After she died, it was hard for him to listen to music, because it was unfair that music should continue when the people who made him love it were gone. People like Annabeth and Percy could save the world over and over and they still had each other and a billion other friends. Nico had nobody. Not really.

"Nico"

A soft voice broke him from his dreaming, and Nico realised that he was blending in with the shadows. Desperately grasping at the bedframe, Nico drew his gaze up to Will's. The son of Apollo's eyes were blue like his father's, yet less startling. They were more muted in colour, calming and reassuring, just like him. Will tilted his head, and Nico, realising that he was staring, dipped his gaze to fiddle with the apple core in his hands. Will's hands reached out, and took the core, his fingers brushing against Nico's, before withdrawing while the blonde boy apologised gently. Nico waved him off. Everything he touched was destroyed. It was in his nature. He would do all he could to stop that from happening to Will Solace.

Will, it seemed, had other ideas.

“Nico, try sitting down. I’m really sorry. I don’t know what I’m doing. Gods, I’m so stupid, what kind of doctor am I? I should have researched more. How can I help if I haven’t researched? I’m sorry”

The son of Apollo was pacing back and forth and he had a length of bandage which he was wrapping and unwrapping around his wrist. Until he saw him on Half-Blood Hill, Nico hadn’t realised how stubborn Will was. Now, he was beginning to notice that the blonde was constantly self-doubting himself. It was normally less obvious than this, when he would always make jokes about how he was no use in battle because he was ‘just a healer’, but now it was clear that he was insecure about even his healing abilities. Sometimes it was easy to forget that Will was only 15. Sure, Nico was around the same age, but people were constantly calling him "kid", or on one memorable occasion, "young gloomy cupcake" (Coach Hedge had some interesting nicknames), but Will had gone from 2nd-in-line to head counselor in an incredibly short span of time. Nico still felt Bianca's loss as if it were yesterday. He couldn't imagine having to go through that twice. 

When he had first arrived at, Camp Half-Blood, he had thought that being a demigod was the coolest thing that had ever happened to him, but now he frequently wished that he could have stayed in the Lotus Casino forever, with Bianca, oblivious to the world outside. 

Plato once told a story about a group of people that lived inside a cave, only able to view the world from shadows projected onto the cave wall. One of them decided to leave the cave and found the world outside to be full of joy and wonder. When they returned to tell the others, they couldn't persuade them to leave the cave, because the shadows showed the outlines of terrible monsters and they didn't think it was worth the risk.

Nico had stepped out into the real world, but the joy and wonder was overwhelmed by pain and grief. He wanted to return to the shadows. There, he couldn't be hurt, and he couldn't hurt anyone else. It would be so easy to just slip away, it was so much easier leaving than coming back.

"Nico!"

The worried voice cut into Nico's mind and fractured thoughts. It seemed bizarre that anyone would be worried for him.

"Nico, stay with me"

Will sounded urgent, like he couldn't bear the idea of Nico leaving. Nico recalled their earlier conversation, when Will had said that he wasn't stupid, because he'd decided to stay. Nico looked up into Will's frantic eyes, that somehow calmed him even when the owner was panicking, and decided that he would make an effort to stay, even if it was harder than leaving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updates every Friday  
> Come say hi to me on Tumblr  
> @/ randomfandomnerd


	3. Chapter 3

When everything had settled down with all the patients, Will sat next to Nico’s bed, keeping a close eye on him. Thankfully ,the son of Hades was now significantly more solid than he had been a few hours ago, however his sleep was restless and every now and again, he would flinch or mumble something incomprehensible. Will had heard Annabeth talking about nightmares brought on by Gaia and the giants or, before that, the titans. Of course this only ever happened to the major demigods who were sent on quests, like Clarisse, Percy and Piper, or members of the Hypnos cabin, like Clovis. Will had never really had nightmares, but then again, it wasn’t often that he got a lot of sleep. Whenever he tried to sleep, he’d end up lying awake in bed, staring at the ceiling. He’d think about all the demigods that had died in the two wars. Lee and Michael. And Leo, who had barely arrived at camp before he was sent away to go save the world. Sometimes Will thought about how he felt so helpless that he wasn’t able to heal everyone. If he’d been given a gift that could make him good at fighting, he could have prevented more deaths. People were always saying that healers were essential during battle, but there was no good healing someone if they were dead. Then there was Octavian. Yes, he may have been a 1st-class schmuck, but Will couldn’t help himself for feeling sorry for him. In a camp of highly skilled warriors, he’d had to fake his way to the top. Being as insecure as he was, he’d done everything he could to grab onto any power that drifted his way. Insecurity was no excuse for what he did, but Will kept remembering the moments leading up to Octavian’s death. How he’d called Michael Kahale a good friend until the end. 

How not even the person he had seemed closest to had warned him. That look Nico had given him, as if Will was ridiculous for wanting Octavian to live. Of course, it all was ridiculous, and Will was just being the weak and sympathetic healer he was, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that death was never a good punishment for anyone. 

At the sound of approaching humming, Will snapped his head round to look at the clock. 11:20. The end of his shift. Will took one last look at Nico, before standing up and heading over to the door, carrying a folder to give to Austin, who was washing his hands. 

“What’s that?”

Austin asked, tilting his head towards the folder.

“Your sheet music. Perhaps consider that the infirmary is not the place for these”

Austin guiltily looked down at the new sheet music tucked under his arm that he’d just brought in.

“Sorry Will, I like to keep it on me at all times incase a tune comes into my head that I want to try out later”

Will shook his head and left the folder with Austin, before leaving the infirmary, closing the door gently behind him.

Almost immediately, he was ambushed by a very excited Mitchell. Startled, he let out a tiny squeak that made the son of Aphrodite cackle. Mitchell was very happy with his new head counselor, and had been celebrating by wearing all of his favourite outfits that Drew had called ugly or attention-seeking, without giving a damn about the occasion. Chiron, thoroughly baffled by the apparent unending depths of Mitchell’s wardrobe, had allowed him to.

Currently, he was wearing black skinny jeans, an oversized t-shirt depicting a scene from Howl’s Moving Castle, Doc Martens (bright blue platform heeled ones. Will had no idea how he was able to bounce around in them so much) and copious amounts of black eyeliner. A small hoop with a little golden star dangled from his left earlobe. After waiting for Will to calm down again, he flung his arm round the taller boy and practically dragged him towards the Hephaestus Cabin, chatting away.

“You have no idea how excited I’ve been for this. Apparently he finished it ages ago, but needed to prepare how he was going to show us.”

“He” was Jake Mason, the 3rd part of their unlikely trio of friends, who had been working on a top-secret project in his spare time away from making weapons. The son of Hephaestus took revealing his creations very seriously, and there was always some sort of grand ceremony involved. Will and Jake had always been pretty good friends, and they’d had each other's backs after they’d become head counselors during the Titan War. Mitchell had joined them more recently, after volunteering to help Jake with his recovery after being in a full body cast (his mortal mother was a yoga instructor and he knew a lot about useful stretches and exercises). After physiotherapy sessions, the 3 boys always hung around to chat, and they’d found that they had a lot in common. 

Mitchell skipped up to the door of Cabin 9, and enthusiastically knocked on it. It swung open to reveal a very smug-looking Harley, who was holding a tray with 2 glasses on it. Offering them to the 2 older boys, he gestured for them to head up the stairs. Amused, Will took a glass and, upon drinking it, found the contents to be apple juice. At the top of the stairs, Jake was waiting outside their usual room they used to meet up. Jake was wearing jeans, an orange camp t-shirt and the sturdy boots preferred by the Hephaestus kids (protecting them from any heavy equipment they might drop). However this rather ordinary outfit was finished off by a top hat that he’d gotten from gods knew where. Jake had always enjoyed dramatics. When he was at school, he enjoyed creating sets for plays and musicals. Jake stepped aside to usher them both into the room.

Once they were inside, Will took a look around. Their usual chairs had been moved to one side of the room to make way for what appeared to be a large set of theatre curtains. Knowing Jake, it was entirely possible that he’d spent more time on making the presentation than on making the actual product.

When he was satisfied that Mitchell and Will were seated, Jake cleared his throat.

“So, as you know, I have been working on an incredibly top-secret project and I have now decided to give you the grandiose reveal”

Mitchell smirked and muttered in Will’s ear

“Let’s hope that the display doesn’t fall on top of him this time”

Will snorted, remembering the large white sheet that had covered Jake like a little kid being a ghost at halloween when he’d shown them the grandfather clock he'd made that was an exact replica of the one from “Whisper of the Heart”.Jake frowned at them

“That was only one time”,

he grumbled. He quickly dashed over to a console in the wall, flipped a switch, and a spotlight focused on the centre of the curtains, as they began to pull apart, revealing…

“Jake Mason! You didn’t actually do it! I thought that was a joke!”

Will exclaimed. Beside him, Mitchell was looking between them, confused. Jake grinned.

“Yes William, you know I would never joke about something so serious. This is indeed a scale model of an X-Wing fighter, with a cockpit that is the perfect size to hold a cat. And yes, I do fully plan on somehow getting this home to Lola”

Lola was Jake’s mother’s grumpy tabby cat and Jake was the only person she really allowed to pick her up. Jake insisted that this was because she loved him, but Will suspected that it was because he always snuck her extra treats. Jake had many photos of her carefully arranged around his bunk and although she was grumpy, she was very adorable.

Not many people were aware of it, but Will was a MASSIVE Star Wars fan. Back home in Texas, his bedroom at his grandparents’ house had posters all over the walls of his favourite characters, and it was always a treat when he got to watch The Empire Strikes Back (his favourite of all the movies) with his grandfather, who was just as invested as he was.

Will sat back and admired the precise workmanship of the model. Jake had gotten every single detail in, from the shape of the windows, to the markings on the side.

The 3 boys sat down and chatted and, for a while, they were able to forget the horrors and pressures of being demigods, and were able to laugh and talk like 3 ordinary teenagers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come say hi on Tumblr  
> @/ randomfandomnerd


	4. Chapter 4

Nico slowly opened his eyes, and turned his head to face the small clock that Will had positioned on the small bedside table. 5 hours. It seemed that he was taking rather long naps whilst in the infirmary. He blamed the pillows. They were deceivingly comfy.

His calm was interrupted by a loud squawk.

“AUSTIN! WHY THE HELL IS THERE A PIANO IN THE INFIRMARY?”

Nico stood up, yanked the curtain back and, indeed, there was a piano in the infirmary. Austin popped his head out from inside a storage cupboard. 

“I’ve been here the whole time! How would I manage to get a piano into the infirmary?”

Shaking his head, Will walked over to Nico.

“Nevermind. I have a present for you.”

He gestured for Nico to go back behind the curtain, with one hand, the other hand holding a bag behind his back. Once he had closed the curtain behind him, Will pulled the present out of the bag. He grinned as Nico looked at the fabric monstrosity in horror. 

“What in Hades is that?”,

the shorter boy demanded. Will’s grin just widened as he extended the Hawaiian shirt towards Nico.

“I noticed that you were wearing one when you arrived back at camp, and so I got you another one. I think it will look good on you.”

The son of Hades took the shirt.

“This is offending my eyeballs.”,

he grumbled.

“There are men playing ukuleles next to palm trees on this. Why do you think this would suit me?”

Will chuckled.

“Look closer.”

Nico did, inspecting the garment with suspicion.

“It doesn’t have any Hermes-kid stuff, does it? You’d better not have gotten me a cursed-”

He broke off. 

“WILLIAM SOLACE! TELL ME YOU DID NOT GET ME A HAWAIIAN SHIRT WITH UKULELE-PLAYING SKELETONS ON IT!”

The son of Apollo practically cackled.

“So you don’t want it then?”

he teased. Nico frowned, holding the shirt close to his chest.

“No, I do want it. Sorry for being rude. I don’t get many presents, so I’m not very good at accepting them. I guess I can just say they’re… combat ukuleles?”

A very excited looking Harley barged through the curtain.

“Nico! You’re a genius! I can make a combat ukulele!”

Before they could respond, he sprinted off, out of the infirmary, giving Cecil a high-five on his way out. Nico watched him leave, amused.

“How does one even go about making a combat ukulele?”

he wondered aloud. Will shrugged

“No clue. And, for the record, you weren’t being rude at all.”

Nico offered him a small smile, before asking 

“Why did you give me this? I have plenty of my own clothes.”

Will looked down at his hands. Nico followed his gaze. Despite the son of Apollo’s insistence that his hideously loud whistle was his only music-related inheritance, Nico thought that he had the hands of a pianist; long elegant fingers that were deftly rolling up a long stretch of bandage that he had picked up from a side table. After a while, Will spoke.

“I was being serious, what I said about wanting to be your friend. I saw that shirt a while ago, when Mitchell took me on a shopping trip. I thought you might find it funny. Would you like it? If I was your friend, I mean.”

Nico patted the edge of the bed, next to him, gesturing for Will to sit.

“I would like that a lot. I really appreciate talking to me like this. I guess I’ve never really considered anyone to be my friend. Bianca and Hazel are my sisters, so liking me is kind of a necessary thing. And Reyna is almost like a sister. I think that the closest thing I have to a friend is Jason. Out of everyone I know that I’m not related to, I’d say that Jason is the one that I definitely trust. It’s a nice feeling, being able to trust someone. I’m aware that I’m not very good at talking and now I’m rambling a bit, but what I meant to say is that I would very much enjoy being your friend.”

Will’s face lit up. Nico felt a sense of pride for being able to make his new friend happy.

The son of Apollo, waved a hand in the general direction of the rest of the infirmary.

“I should probably get going, see why the heck there’s a piano in the infirmary. After my shift would it be okay for me to come back here and talk to you again? It’s okay if you don’t want me to, I’d just like to get to know you a bit better. Also I feel a bit bad keeping you in here on your own, with nobody for company except for the occasional break-in from Harley. He’s been spending too much time with Cecil. I don’t understand how everything is calm and he just suddenly appears! Anyway, I digress, would that be alright for me to come here after my shift. We could maybe have lunch together?”

He looked at Nico hopefully as he rose and headed towards the curtain. Nico nodded.

“That would be nice”

He replied. Will grinned again, and drew back the curtain, stepping out into the chaos that was the rest of the infirmary. Nico watched as Austin ran up to Will and said something frantically in his brother’s ear. The look on Will’s face changed to complete and utter bewilderment.

“Why would there be a piano if it can’t play music?”

Will cautiously approached the piano and reached out to lift up the lid.

“So that would be why there’s no sound. It’s hollow. It’s just a sh- WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON IN THERE?”

Unable to quench his curiosity, Nico left the safety of his curtained-off area and peered over Will’s shoulder. The sight that met his eyes was utterly baffling. Inside the piano was a small set of statues that appeared to be pigeons. Austin reached in and picked one out. 

Will’s eyes searched the infirmary for any possible explanation of such a strange occurrence. His eyes landed on Clovis, who had been admitted complaining of a bad headache.

“Oh dear. I have a feeling I know what’s happening, but you won’t like it. I read a record or old weird cases seen at the infirmary, and one in particular could apply to this situation. It affects children of Hypnos. I have a feeling that this piano has come from one of Clovis’ fever dreams.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear this is getting weirder as it goes on
> 
> Come say hi on Tumblr   
> @/ randomfandomnerd


	5. Chapter 5

The infirmary was suddenly busy with demigods wanting to see the piano. Will shooed them away, telling them that they would be more useful looking around the camp, in order to see if there were any more unwanted additions to the scenery.

Although everything had by then calmed down considerably, Nico pulled the blue curtain around to cordon off his little area. Sitting on the bed, he tried to block out all the hubbub of outside by taking a pen he always kept with him, and clicking the clip at the top, focusing on the steady clicking noise. He wasn’t sure why, but the combined sound and action of clicking a pen clip always allowed him to get his thoughts back in line.

He stayed like that until Will gently pulled the curtain back a little, and came through with a tray of food, letting the curtain close behind him. Nico blinked and turned to the clock on the bedside table. Lunchtime already, he realised with surprise. He must have zoned out again.

Will took two folding chairs, and sat opposite him on one of them, using the other as a table for the tray. He inclined his head towards the tray, indicating for Nico to eat something. Nico picked up a packet of crisps, trying to hide his disappointment when he realised that they were just dried vegetables. Upon trying one, he found that they actually weren’t that bad.

Will took a bite out of his sandwich, before fixing his gaze on Nico.

“So I’ve realised that I don’t actually know you that well. So I’ve got some questions here”

he paused to take an actual notebook with writing scrawled all over the first page out of his pocket.

“And I thought maybe we could take it in turns to ask each other questions.”

Nico nodded.

“It was your idea so you can go first”

Will looked down at his list and read off the first question

“We’ll start simple. What’s your favourite colour?”

Nico furrowed his brow as he thought.

“There’s a time of day when everyone is still asleep. I used to find the tallest hill in the area wherever I was. Just before sunrise, the sky sort of is this purply, bluey colour, paler than the night sky, but not quite light. I think that’s my favourite colour.”

Will smiled at Nico’s answer. He often smiled, Nico thought Will had probably smiled more in these few days that Nico had done for the past year. Nico had a very strong urge to protect his new friend, he didn’t deserve anyone hurting him. Of course, he said none of this, and instead asked

“What’s your favourite animal?”

Will wrinkled his nose as he thought.

“I like most animals, but I’d say that dogs are my favourite. There’s a farm near my grandparents’ house and their golden retriever had puppies two years ago and they gave one to me for my birthday. I can’t keep him at camp, sadly, although I did try. He’s called Cooper and he’s a big softie.”

Nico had a sudden mental image of Will playing with tiny puppies and suppressed a little smile. Will moved on to the next question on his list.

“What’s on your bucket list?”

Nico tilted his head. He had no clue what a bucket list was. Thankfully, Will seemed to notice this.

“A bucket list is a list of things you’d like to do at some point in your life. For example, I want to travel in Europe, because I’ve never been outside the States. You know what, scrap this list of questions, let’s make a bucket list.”

He carefully folded over the top page of his notebook and wrote NICO’s BUCKET LIST at the top, double underlining it. Nico glanced up at Will.

“ It would be weird if we just made one for me. Let’s make a joint one. It’d be lonely if I did it all by myself.”

Will’s grin widened as he added his name into the title.

“Alrighty. What should go first? What have you always wanted to do?”

Nico replied after some consideration

“I want to learn to play an instrument. You said you didn’t have any musical skills so we could learn together.”

Will wrote it down on the list, chuckling.

“My grandparents once hired a guitar teacher for me. I was awful. I think that they were surprised that someone from such a musical family could be so musically incompetant.”

Nico laughed. Will looked at him for a few seconds, before quickly turning his head to finish writing it down. Once he was done, he suggested

“We could go to Iceland. Or France.”

“We could go to both of them.”

Nico responded.

“If we time it right, we could see the Northern Lights.”

Will nodded, and wrote France and Iceland on the list.

“Also, I’ve always wanted to go to a concert. Like a proper one, not one of my mom’s. Or maybe a music festival.”

“That sounds fun”

replied Nico.

“What kind of music would we want to see? I don’t know many specific musicians, I kind of just listen to whatever happens to be playing.”

Will looked up from where he was doodling pictures in the margin. From where he was sitting, Nico could see stars, moons, and squiggles that were possibly clouds.

“I was actually talking to Percy and Jason about that. They wanted to share some of their favourite music and films with you. They said they’d set up a sleepover type thingy in Percy’s cabin. Jason didn’t want to host it in his. Something about a hippie Zeus, whatever that means. I’ve told Chiron that it’s not healthy for you to spend so much time alone, Doctor’s Orders.”

At this, he winked at Nico and Nico found himself laughing again. Something about Will made him feel safe without any risks of being judged. Will spoke again.

“You’ve actually only got until tomorrow in here, so I thought you could maybe come to the pavilion for dinner today? I could maybe sit at your table, but only if you want.”

Nico was surprisingly excited by this, yet there were also some nerves about eating lunch with so many people around after so long travelling. He also worried about if people would accuse him of not telling them about the Romans. Sure, everything was friendly now, but the war between the two camps had distracted from the main problem of giants destroying the world. Nevertheless, he said, in what was either an act of bravery or stupidity,

“Alright then.”,

and so the rest of his day was spent wondering what would happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ꜱᴀʏ ʜɪ ᴛᴏ ᴍᴇ ᴏɴ ᴍʏ ᴛᴜᴍʙʟʀ  
> ʀᴀɴᴅᴏᴍꜰᴀɴᴅᴏᴍɴᴇʀᴅ


	6. Chapter 6

Will was playing cards with Mitchell and Jake, but his thoughts were with Nico. Sure, he’d seemed happy enough, but he wondered if he was rushing him, even though a meal outside was something that he’d promised him.

Mitchell made a little noise of glee as he won his sixth game in a row, and turned to the other two. He was wearing a long sleeved t-shirt under some black dungarees with a pair of black and white Vans, and his ear sported a small diamond stud. 

“Another game?”

Will shook his head, grabbing his jacket off the back of his chair.

“Nah, it’s roundabout time for dinner. I’ve got some stuff to do in the infirmary beforehand.”

Shrugging his jacket on, he went down the stairs of Cabin 9,and out the door, waving at Harley and Shane, the latter of which was holding a sheet of celestial bronze steady as the former enthusiastically bashed it into shape. 

Outside, camp was busy with demigods lingering around, chatting on their way to dinner. As Will headed to the infirmary, he was waved over by a rather concerned-looking Malcolm. 

The son of Athena was looking worriedly in the direction of the area behind his cabin as Will caught up with him.

“It’s not another spider, is it?”

Will asked. Last time Malcolm had looked so worried was when a spider had been found on his pillow, and he’d nervously asked Will to remove it. Unfortunately, Annabeth had gone to ask for help from Cabin 9, and so before Will could catch it in a glass and let it go outside, the spider (and Malcolm’s pillow) had been destroyed by Harley’s flamethrower. Will was eager for that to never happen again. Later on. The spider was found to have been snuck in by Travis Stoll, who was only caught because he was laughing so much.

When Malcolm shook his head to confirm that there was not a spider, Will curiously went round the back of the cabin. He immediately saw why Malcolm had been so concerned. 

“Well, Clovis sure does have weird dreams.”

Lying on the grass behind the Athena Cabin, was a cat. Alright, it could have come from anywhere, except for the fact that it was blue. Will turned back to Malcolm, who had approached behind him and was regarding the cat apprehensively.

“Well, I think Percy will like it.”

He quipped. Will carefully leant down and scooped up the cat. It stared up at him with big curious eyes, but didn’t make a fuss. He decided to take it to the infirmary and put it in one of the back rooms while he was at dinner, then sort out something a bit more appropriate for it afterwards. He said goodbye to Malcolm, before going to get Nico and drop off the cat.

In the infirmary, most of the patients were either dozing or eating food on the trays provided for them.Cecil had been discharged, so the bed next to Nico was empty. Will drew back the curtains to reveal Nico, who had at some point changed into the shirt Will had gotten him. As predicted, it looked good on him. 

Nico looked baffled by the purring bundle of blue fluff in Will’s arms.

“It’s one of Clovis’ dreams” 

Will explained. Nico came over and gave the cat a little pat on the head. Will placed the blue feline in his arms as he prepared some blankets in an empty back room. They left the sleepy kitty there, closing the door on their way out to dinner. Kayla waved to them as they left.

✧✧✧

The dining pavilion was buzzing with noise when the two boys arrived. Almost immediately they were approached by a grinning Jason and Percy.

“Hey, Nico, come and sit with us The Big Three kids are allowed to all sit together because otherwise we’d be all sad and lonely. Except Thalia. She sits with the Hunters because she’s scary.”

Will looked at Percy, amused, although he had to admit that the Hunters were mildly terrifying. He looked anxiously over at Nico, remembering the fate of his sister, but the son of Hades wasn’t showing any outward signs of distress. Will just hoped he wasn’t inwardly distressed either.

He waved goodbye as the two excitable boys dragged Nico to the Poseidon table, the shorter boy between them as they chatted away. Will turned to head for the Apollo table and squeezed in next to Austin, who was looking on in disgust as Lillie tucked into a burger. For someone so small and innocent, she practically attacked her meat at every mealtime. Will had sometimes found himself wondering whether she was really a hyena in disguise.

He laughed,

“You know, she probably feels the same way about what you’re eating.”

Austin looked down, confused at his brown rice and kale. Unlike most people who would eat kale, Austin wasn’t really a health enthusiast; he just, for reasons Lillie could never seem to figure out, genuinely liked it.

Will suddenly remembered,

“Oh, by the way, don’t open the door to backroom 3. There’s one of Clovis’ dreams in it. It’s a blue cat.”

Austin seemed to find this less concerning than the piano, and just simply said,

“Percy will like it if it’s blue”

Will looked across the pavilion to see Percy eating bright blue spaghetti, as Nico looked mildly disgusted. Although, he couldn’t be too disgusted, considering the fact that he was laughing at a comment Jason had just made.

“You know, you’re the second person who’s told me that, and I have a feeling that you’re right; I think I’ll show him it later.”

He carefully broke off a bit of fish with his fork, before nibbling the edge of it. Austin snorted.

“You’re always so dainty when you’re eating.”

he said with a mouthful of rice. Will cringed at the sight. It was a natural reflex; his grandma was a stickler for manners, especially at the table. The first time Will had eaten pizza with a knife and fork at camp, Travis Stoll had laughed so hard, juice came out of his nose. 

Will snuck another peek at the Poseidon table, where Percy and Jason were trying to recreate the spaghetti scene from Lady and the Tramp. They were… interesting, but Will was happy that they clearly cared about being friends with Nico and treating him well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried the little star time skip thingys that I used once in the 1st chapter then neglected, but I think they're cute so I might use them more


	7. Chapter 7

Nico found himself being frogmarched to the Poseidon table by Percy and Jason. When they reached the table, the three boys sat down, with Jason and Percy on either side of Nico.

Percy immediately picked up his cup and it filled automatically with what Nico now knew to be his preferred beverage of blue coke. 

Nico turned to his own cup and took a small sip of his milk. He knew he could never cope with being lactose intolerant like Frank. Plant substitutes just never tasted the same, no matter how much Coach Hedge insisted that they were nicer.

Percy spluttered.

“ _ Are you having milk with your main meal? _ ”

Nico pointedly looked at Percy’s bright blue drink. The son of Poseidon shrugged

“ _ Fair enough I guess _ ”

Jason adjusted his glasses so that they sat higher on his nose.

“ _ So Nico _ ”

he said. 

“ _ Did Will tell you about our grand plan? Well, mainly Percy’s grand plan. He’s seen a lot more films than I have, and apparently my music taste “isn’t the kind of thing Nico would like”, whatever that means. _

Percy interrupted,

“ _ I highly doubt that Nico would like it. Imagine Dragons? Really Jason? Really? Also your Miley Cyrus phase was more than any demigod should have to handle in a lifetime. _ ”

Jason didn’t seem at all offended by this and simply turned to Nico.

“ _ So what do you think? How about it? A sleepover in Percy’s cabin with movies and songs and hopefully popcorn. _ ”

Nico nodded. 

“ _ Sounds good” _

he responded, and the other two boys did some sort of co-ordinated celebratory dance where they sat. Looking over at Percy, he noticed that the son of Poseidon was eating blue spaghetti. Now, baked goods like pancakes and cookies, he could understand. He could even understand the coke. What he didn’t get was blue tomato sauce. That was just ridiculous. Percy could have stopped at having blue pasta, but no. He had to have blue tomatoes as well. 

Jason noticed Nico’s incredulous look and grinned at him.

“ _ I know, right? Any more and he’s going to become a smurf. Or maybe Violet Beauregarde from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. _ ”

Nico laughed. He had no idea what a smurf was, but the name sounded funny. He had once read a copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory from a pile of tattered paperbacks in Chiron’s office in the Big House when he’d first arrived at Camp Half-Blood, and turning into a blueberry seemed to be a very unfortunate fate.

“ _ I’m out of the infirmary tomorrow, so we could maybe do it then?” _

he suggested. Percy and Jason nodded. Percy launched into a long rant about the pros and cons of Dreamworks vs. Disney. Nico had heard of Disney, but he wasn’t sure about the films that Percy was talking about, and he’d definitely never heard of Dreamworks.

“ _... How to Train Your Dragon is an absolute masterpiece, but still, Disney has some absolute classics. Consider Aladdin or 101 Dalmatians.” _

Why anyone would even have that many dogs was beyond Nico.

“ _ And that’s not even the best dog one! Lady and the Tramp! Nico you have to watch that one! Jason, bro, help me out here. Let’s show him how the spaghetti scene works.” _

Jason frowned

“ _ I’m not sure I want to know what your weird blue spaghetti tastes like.” _

He grumbled, while shifting Nico slightly so he had better access to the plate. Percy appeared to be in the process of aiming for and missing a meatball with his nose. When he saw that Jason was participating in his visibly mad plan, he grinned, and picked up the end of a bit of blue spaghetti with his mouth. Out of the corner of his mouth he said to Nico

“ _ This is the really famous bit of the movie _ ”

Except it came out more like

“ _ Dif if de rewy famos bit of de moobie” _

Thankfully, Nico had spent enough time aboard the Argo 2 to be able to translate Percy’s mouth-full talk, but he was still really confused as Jason took the other half of the spaghetti strand in his mouth and the two of most respected warriors of Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood began to eat their way towards the other’s mouth. When they got to the middle, Jason bit the spaghetti in two, and sat back down, wiping all traces of blue tomato sauce off his face. 

Percy looked at Nico expectantly. He awkwardly sat there and sort of clapped while wondering what the hell he had gotten himself into. Percy and Jason both did an overly-dramatic bow. 

Nico chuckled again. He liked having friends. 

He remembered something from earlier

“ _ Hey Percy, Will has something he wants to show you in a back room in the infirmary. _ ”

Percy looked up, concerned.

“ _ Last time he said he had something to show me, I ended up with several hours of watching Lillie, because her siblings didn’t want her to make a mess in the infirmary. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for babysitting as long as it doesn’t involve a child literally being so hyper they tried to escape out of the window. _ ”

Nico laughed again as he pictured Percy trying to hold down a hyper little girl trying to escape, all while making sure he didn’t hurt her and avoiding the puppy eyes of a desperate child seeking all sorts of mayhem.

“ _ No, it’s not Lillie. You should just come and see it. I’m sure Will will allow Jason to come too, if he behaves himself. _ ”

Jason squawked in mock outrage at this and Percy and Nico laughed at his expression. He pouted down at his fries as Percy tried to get Nico to tell him what the surprise was.

“ _ Soooo… what is it? Pleaseeee!!! Tellllll meeeeeeeeeeee!!!! _ ”

Nevermind Lillie, Percy’s puppy eyes were very hard to resist. He had no idea how Annabeth ever managed to tell him no. Nico solved the problem by turning around and looking at Jason, who now had a smirk on his face. 

“ _ Hmmph _ ”

Percy huffed.

  
“ _ We’d better get this meal done so I can find out what it is” _


	8. Chapter 8

After finishing his meal, Will headed over to the Poseidon table to take Nico and the others back to the infirmary to see the latest of Clovis’ frankly bizarre dreams. He wasn’t entirely sure what went on inside the son of Hypnos’ mind, and he wasn’t sure he ever wanted to know.

When he arrived in front of them, Nico was listening intently to something that Jason was saying, while Percy stole the final fries off of Jason’s plate. Upon seeing him, the three boys turned and looked up. Nico gave him a small smile and Will got a ridiculous warm fuzzy feeling and he felt that he was definitely blushing. Not one to be deterred by embarrassment, Will led the way to the infirmary, gesturing for the others to follow. Nico and Jason resumed their conversation, which seemed to be about finalising details for their sleepover, while Percy bounced ahead like an over-excited kangaroo, pestering Will with questions about what awaited him in the infirmary. Clearly Nico had wanted to keep it a surprise, so Will played along, trying and failing to keep the amused smirk off his face. 

Reaching the infirmary, Will swung open the door and held it so that the others could enter. Then, closing the door behind him, he took them all through to the back room, before turning to them and gazing sternly at them.

“You have to be very careful and quiet. 

he warned them, only turning to open the door when he was satisfied that they understood. Once they were inside, Will tried to coax the cat out of its little hiding spot, snuggled within the little mountain of blankets. After a while, a tiny pink nose poked out and Percy gave a tiny gasp. Will turned his head and slowly beckoned him over. The son of Poseidon looked thrilled to see the cat,

“Hello tiny friend”

he cooed to the head that was now fully sticking out. Big eyes blinked curiously. Trusting that Percy would be able to introduce himself safely, Will walked over to Jason, as Nico stepped forward to get a closer look. Will looked at the taller blonde. Jason wasn’t really that much taller than Will’s 6’1 but it was noticeable. It seemed that descendants of Zeus had plenty of tall-person genes. Well, being a demigod made the whole ‘genes’ thing a bit weird, but Will didn’t fully understand that, although he knew that Malcolm was planning on doing some research on the subject.

“Are you not going to say hi to the little fluffball?”

he asked. Jason ran a hand through his hair.

“To be fully honest with you, I don’t really have much experience with cats; I wouldn’t really consider myself a cat person. Also I’m a little confused as to why it’s blue. I don’t remember any myths with blue cats.”

Will laughed and shook his head.

“It’s not from Ancient Greece or anything. It’s one of Clovis’ fever dreams.”

Jason frowned, and adjusted his glasses.

“Here I was thinking I had weird dreams.”

he muttered. Chuckling, Will walked towards Percy who had managed to get the cat onto his lap. He waved Jason over. Hesitantly, Jason approached and sat down next to Nico. The cat looked up curiously, before wrinkling its nose and giving an adorable sneeze. The wariness in Jason’s eyes melted away into an expression of utter adoration.

“It’s so fuzzy and cute”

he exclaimed, reaching out a hand in order to stroke it. The cat promptly hopped down from Percy’s lap and trotted over to Jason, nuzzling his hand and purring loudly. Approximately a minute after saying he wasn’t a cat person, Jason was completely won over, tickling his happy new buddy under the chin.

“Should we name you or do you already have a name?”

he murmured, picking the cat up and looking it in the eyes. 

“What about Pip, or Berry or maybe Muffin?”

Percy suggested. Nico snorted.

“What kind of person names their cat Berry?”

Will shrugged. 

“I’m not sure, but I do know a family friend that has a tortoise called Berry.”

Nico raised an eyebrow at that and Will quickly turned his attention back to the cat in order to avoid being seen blushing. Thankfully, the other three boys were now discussing names. The general consensus appeared to be writing a list and getting the other campers to vote on it, or add any new names they thought would be good. 

Will took a clipboard and a blank piece of paper from a shelf that was fixed to a wall at the side of the room. With prompts from the others, he wrote down a list of names, with room for tally marks below, as well as gaps for new names that other campers might add. The current contenders were as follows:

Pip

Berry

Muffin

Cookie

Boo

Link

Buzz

Nemo

Will had to say, it was a very varied list of names, mostly contributed to by Percy. Jason was too distracted tickling the cat, who had clearly become very attached to him, under the chin. Will snorted. Not a cat person indeed. Although the cat was so irresistible that Will had a hard time imagining even Mr D not falling for its charms.

Once it was all written down, the four boys left, Jason in particular looking very reluctant to put down the cat, giving it an extra hug before letting it snuggle back down in its nest of blankets.

✧✧✧

When they were outside, the boys all went their separate ways to their cabins, as it was nearing curfew time. Will took the clipboard with him, planning on asking for name suggestions in the Apollo Cabin before asking the rest of the campers in the morning.

His siblings were all more than happy to help. Lillie suggested Leonardo, while Kayla voted for Berry. Austin, on his way to his shift in the infirmary, grabbed the pen and scribbled Pepper down.

Will put the clipboard on his bedside table, and changed ready for bed, before grabbing his toothbrush and heading to the recently installed (thanks to Annabeth) bathroom at the back of the cabin. Well, when he said recently installed, he meant installed around 2 years ago, just after the Titan War.

After ensuring that his teeth were thoroughly clean, Will returned to his bunk, climbed in under the blankets, and went to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can probably tell, I'm rubbish at coming up with names. If anyone has any better name suggestions for the cat, please share them.


End file.
